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SYSTEMATIC ANALYSES OF RADIOCARBON AGES OF COEXISTING PLANKTONIC FORAMINIFERA
- Jörg Lippold, Julia Gottschalk, Jean Lynch-Stieglitz, Matthew W Schmidt, Sönke Szidat, Andre Bahr
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- Radiocarbon / Volume 65 / Issue 4 / August 2023
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- 01 September 2023, pp. 876-898
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- August 2023
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We compare radiocarbon (14C) ages of coexisting planktonic foraminifera species from sediment cores VM12-107 and KNR166-2-26JPC from the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean for three time periods (Holocene, Heinrich Stadial 1, last glacial maximum). We find a maximum inter-species difference of 1200 14C yr. On average, the 14C ages deviate by ∼300 yr between Globigerinoides ruber and other species. In most cases, this exceeds the analytical uncertainty range of the measurements and thus renders the choice of species for generating age models as important as sample weight. While modern stratified water-column profiles imply an increase in 14C ages with water depth, we observe an expected parallel increase of 14C ages and δ18O only at VM12-107. The mismatch between 14C ages and δ18O at KNR166-2-26JPC likely results from the effects of bioturbation and the hydrographic setting. The largest difference in 14C ages between mixed-layer versus thermocline-calcifying planktonic foraminifera are observed during Heinrich Stadial 1 despite a decrease in upper-ocean stratification at that time. This difference is likely the result of inconsistent increases in 14C reservoir ages during times of reduced overturning circulation masking the potential of 14C ages of coexisting planktonic foraminifera to reflect the density stratification of the water column.
3 - The Lawyer as Opportunity Enabler
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- Intersentia
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp 69-92
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The lawyer in the role of enabler is concerned with protecting and defending the rights of the client as well as helping the client achieve their personal and business objectives in a potential conflict with individuals, organizations, or public authorities. The lawyer in this role tends to apply substance communication, symbolic influencing, and information selection and control. Substance is legal arguments based on statutes in laws, regulations in procedures, and former decisions in district courts, courts of appeal, and the Supreme Court. Symbols are presented artifacts to portray the client in a better light by communicating both with opposing parties as well as with the media or other suitable outlets, in terms of garnering influence in favor of the client about the relevance and justice for the client to achieve goals and objectives. Information control is concerned with the selection of information that might benefit the client and the avoidance of information that might harm them (Gottschalk, 2014).
The Norwegian law firm Thommessen is one of Norway’s leading commercial law firms with offices in Oslo, Bergen, Stavanger, and London. A total of 220 lawyers work for the firm. The following message from managing partner Sverre Tyrhaug was present on its English website (www.thommessen.no/en) on August 21, 2021:
At Thommessen, we enable our clients to achieve their objectives by understanding their challenges and opportunities.
The frequently long-term relationship as a professional opportunity enabler is emphasized by other law firms as well, such as the Swedish law firm Mannheimer Swartling in terms of being an enduring business partner (www.mannheimerswartling.se/en):
In an evolving world and a shifting business landscape, the demands and expectations of our clients and our own people also change. A continuous and proactive attitude to change is absolutely essential for us to continue being the business law firm of choice – both for clients and our employees.
Unlike client defenders, who tend to put themselves before their clients by having a low opinion of their clients, whom they assume to be guilty of the crime in question (Newman, 2012), opportunity enablers are partners with clients in the joint ventures of helping the clients realize their ambitions and reach their goals. Clients are assumed to have the right to explore and exploit opportunities as long as this is done within a legal framework.
1 - The Knowledge Worker
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp 7-40
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As argued by Litchfield et al. (2021), knowledge workers invest heavily in developing their human capital for work in the form of knowledge in addition to skills and abilities. This demands engagement and creativity, which in turn encourages lawyers to define themselves through their work. Knowledge represents the fuel that feeds the engine of creative idea generation (Mannucci and Yong, 2018).
Knowledge is often defined as information combined with interpretation (understanding), reflection (thinking), and context (situation). Knowledge is a reducer of uncertainty and complexity or relation to predict and select actions (Mofokeng, 2021). Knowledge is a meaningful organization of information that expresses an evolving understanding of a subject and establishes a basis for judgment and the potential for action (Ntsoereng, 2021). In a hierarchy, data are at the bottom moving into information and knowledge, and finally to wisdom. Data are numbers and letters that do not make sense. Put into a reference that makes sense, data transform into information. Information refers to facts that can be understood, stored, and transferred (McIver et al., 2013). When information is combined as stated, then it becomes knowledge. Accumulation of knowledge over time in the form of learning becomes wisdom.
A simple example is the number 60 for a person. It might be the person’s weight or the person’s age. When it is determined that the person is 60 years old, then data is turned into information. Reflecting on the person’s age depending on gender, nationality, and other age-related factors, the person can be considered old or not so old. In some countries, the average life expectancy is below 60 years, while in other countries, the average life expectancy is above 60 years.
1. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF KNOWLEDGE WORK
McIver et al. (2013) distinguished four types of knowledge work practice based on underlying knowledge characteristics involved in doing the work. Knowledge work practice refers to the way in which work gets done and knowing how to do it. Knowledge work practices are the actions engaged in by lawyers as knowledge workers to accomplish the ongoing work of the firm for its clients. The four types of practice derive from the dimensions of tacitness and learnability.
11 - The Value Shop Configuration of Legal Services
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp 219-242
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The most important business processes are often found in the law firm’s value configuration. A value configuration describes how value is created in a firm for its customers. A value configuration shows how the most important business processes function is to create value for customers. A value configuration represents the way in which a particular organization conducts business. The best-known value configuration is the value chain (Gottschalk and Khandelwal, 2003).
In the value chain, value is created through the efficient production of goods and services based on the input of a variety of resources. The firm is perceived as a series or chain of activities. Primary activities in the value chain include inbound logistics, production, outbound logistics, marketing, and service. Support activities include infrastructure, human resources, technology development, and procurement. Attention is focused on performing these activities in the chain in efficient and effective ways.
Value cannot only be created in value chains; it can also be created in two alternative value configurations: a value network and a value shop (Stabell and Fjeldstad, 1998). Value chains, networks, and shops are compared in Table 11.1. A value network is a company that creates value by connecting clients and customers that are, or want to be, dependent on each other. These companies distribute information, money, products, and services. While activities in both value chains and value shops are done sequentially, activities in value networks occur in parallel. The number and combination of customers and access points in the network are important value drivers in the value network. More customers and more connections create more value to customers. Examples of value networks include telecommunication companies, financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies, and stockbrokers. Value networks perform three activities:
1. The development of customer networks through marketing and recruitment of new customers to enable increased value for both existing customers and new customers.
2. The development of new services and improvement in existing services.
3. The development of infrastructure so that customer services can be provided more efficiently and effectively.
The current technology situation in a value network will mainly be described through the infrastructure in activity 3 in the above list, which will typically consist of information technology.
Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
- Defender, Enabler, Investigator
- Petter Gottschalk, Christopher Hamerton
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023
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This book provides the first thorough examination of the concept of lawyer roles in knowledge work, offering a detailed comparative exploration and analysis of the globalized legal services industry in terms of individual and corporate professional function. Knowledge management has long been identified by scholars within the business sphere as a key strategic device in the development of complex organizations and developing markets. However, this essential process has been largely ignored within socio-legal studies and professional practice applications as a specific subject for close scrutiny. Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work seeks to address this anomaly, with Gottschalk and Hamerton recognizing the strong lineage and correlation that exists between the study of knowledge management and contemporary legal practice. Using an interdisciplinary focus which includes illustrative case-studies, the book explores European, North American, and global perspectives as well as models to identify, position, and reveal the forward-looking lawyer as defender, enabler, and investigator. In doing so it revaluates current strategic legal practice and organisational behaviour within the context of changing patterns of business, the workplace, social rules, systems of governance, decision making, social ordering and control.
5 - The Global Legal Services Industry and the Harnessing of Knowledge
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp 109-130
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In recent years, research articles and media reports have suggested major changes in the legal services industry. Some have even made forecasts of a paradigm shift in the industry, mainly because of globalization and technology. While the industry of providing professional legal services is certainly changing over time, as is the case in most other industries, a fundamental change in the basic concepts and practices as suggested by a paradigm shift is not occurring. Two decades ago, Susskind (2003) suggested that technology would completely transform legal practice. Similarly, Sherer and Lee (2002) argued that resource scarcity would cause institutional transformation. More than a decade ago, Sechooler (2008: 245) attempted to understand the changing legal services industry in the context of globalization:
I have shown that globalization, combined with law firms’ unique structure and increased pressures on firms, may lead to significant restructuring of the legal industry. In particular, corporations may become more powerful, and law firms more corporatized. This restructuring is likely to result in increasing concentration of economic power, which corresponds to broader societal trends of increased inequality in developed nations, while much of the rest of the world remains mired in poverty.
Of course, the legal field is not only local but also global. For example, shipping law on the oceans has been global for more than a century. Information technology has impacted all areas of legal work, both in terms of administrative matters and in knowledge support systems. For example, case-based reasoning is an application where lawyers can review a current case in light of solutions to similar cases in the past that are stored in their database. However, changes in professional legal practice are not disruptive, but rather build on the strengths of the past. Some law firms are expanding internationally. For example, the ten biggest international law firms practicing in South-Africa are as follows (Ntsoereng, 2021): White & Case, Allen & Overy, Baker McKenzie, Hogan Lovells, Fasken, DLA Piper, Norton Rose Fulbright, Eversheds Sutherland, Dentons, and Herbert Smith Freehills.
Lawyers work in law firms, and law firms belong to the legal industry. According to Becker et al. (2001), the legal industry will change rapidly because of three important trends.
Conclusion
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 20 July 2023, pp 243-246
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This book has provided the first thorough examination of the concept of lawyer roles in knowledge work, offering a detailed comparative exploration and analysis of the globalized legal services industry in terms of individual and corporate professional function. Knowledge management has long been identified by scholars in the business sphere as a key strategic device in the development of complex organizations and developing markets. Nevertheless, this essential process has been largely ignored within socio-legal studies and professional practice applications as a specific subject for close scrutiny. This book has addressed this anomaly. It has recognized the strong lineage and correlation that exists between the study of knowledge management and contemporary legal practice. Using an interdisciplinary focus which included illustrative case studies, the book has explored European, North American, and global perspectives and models to identify, position, and reveal the forward-looking lawyer as defender, enabler, and investigator . In doing so, it has re-evaluated current strategic legal practice and organizational behavior within the context of changing patterns of business, workplaces, social rules, systems of governance, decision making, social ordering, and control.
A founding premise of this book was that a lawyer is fundamentally a knowledge worker providing legal services to clients. In the role of enabler, the lawyer tends to be in a long-term relationship with the client. This is an enduring relationship involving some level of permanence. Lawyers experience stability as they recognize repeated work elements and interactions with the same clients. Social identification at work is in the tradition of being understood in terms of partnership or another role in the law firm with a stable group of corporate and/or individual clients. There is an enduring and significant relationship with others at work as well as with continuing clients in the market for legal services. In the roles of defender and investigator, the lawyer tends to be in a shortterm relationship with the client, forming temporary relationships again and again in their working lives. Such transient relationships derive from a project-based organization of work, with arrangements existing as inherently disposable exchanges that are disbanded on the completion of work. There are short-term, unpredictable transactions in transient relationships, with legal professionals experiencing temporary, transient, and restricted (if repeated) elements of relationships.
7 - Poul Schmith/Kammeradvokaten and Legal Knowledge in Complex Corporate Investigations
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp 147-162
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Kammeradvokaten is a law firm in Denmark. In addition to advising private Danish and international clients, it has been the preferred legal adviser to the Danish government since 1939 according to text on its website (www.poulschmith.com), where the firm carries both the name Kammeradvokaten and the name Poul Schmith. The firm mentions its services on this website, which include arbitration, acquisition, compliance, and investigation (www.poulschmith.com, accessed August 16, 2021):
Sometimes an internal investigation is a necessary step in order to uncover all facts and legal issues in a specific situation. Our specialists are very experienced in carrying out internal investigations. An internal investigation may be the appropriate response to suspicious or unusual circumstances in an organization if the cause cannot be identified through the usual measures. A professional investigation may, for example, be required in case of suspected criminal activities in the organization. In such situations it is often advisable to have the circumstances investigated by external and independent specialists in the form of a legal investigation. An investigation carried out by an external law firm will also help calm down the situation while the matter is being examined and any liability clarified.
Two reports of investigations by lawyers at Kammeradvokaten became publicly available in 2020, and thus the reports are relevant for the review of the role of the lawyer of corporate investigator given here. First, the report on the Banedanmark railroad is reviewed extensively (Kammeradvokaten, 2020a), followed by a shorter review of the report on Ejendomsstyrelse property management agency (Kammeradvokaten, 2020b).
1. THE BANEDANMARK RAILROAD INVESTIGATION
In the summer of 2018, Banedanmark noticed an article in the Danish newspaper Berlingske that stated there were rumors of financial crime having been committed by some employees in the public railroad maintenance organization for several years. Banedanmark is a stateowned company that is responsible for operating and maintaining the entire Danish railway network. The company outsources several service functions to outside vendors. The newspaper article was based on journalists having received a number of anonymous tip-offs related to 23 named employees who were still or had previously been employed by Banedanmark. The tip-offs suggested that employees were guilty of misconduct and illegal activities such as bribery and abuse of power when cooperating with subcontractors over several years (Jessen and Jung, 2020; Jung and Jessen, 2020).
Index
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp 271-280
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About the Authors
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 20 July 2023, pp 281-281
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Bibliography
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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Contents
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp v-viii
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4 - The Lawyer as Corporate Investigator
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp 93-108
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Summary
The corporate investigator is a detective in the private policing business undertaking internal examinations in client organizations. He or she conducts commercial inquiries by undertaking factual reviews of documents, interviews with suspects, and other investigative steps. The client expectation is that corporate investigators will uncover and verify the facts of the case, reconstructing past events and the sequences of events, allowing the client to make informed decisions to either litigate or resolve matters on a commercial basis (King, 2012, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c, 2020d, 2021). The corporate investigator is hired by both private and public corporations to find answers to questions (What happened? When did it happen? How did it happen? Who did what to make it happen or not happen? Why did it happen?), when there is suspicion of misconduct and potential financial crime by white-collar offenders (Button, 2020; Gottschalk, 2016, 2020, 2021; Meerts, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021; Wood, 2020).
1. LEADERSHIP IN BRAINSTORMING FRAUD
During an internal investigation by fraud examiners, the examiners need to review findings and potential evidence of fraud. An element of the review process is brainstorming, where the examiners challenge each other on their thoughts and opinions. Brainstorming refers to a group creativity technique where efforts are made to develop new knowledge for a specific issue by triggering spontaneous ideas contributed by participants. Major investigations tend to involve a number of people where some are senior and some are junior to the knowledge needs of the specific examination. Professional standards for internal investigators require that fraud examiners engage in brainstorming as part of every review to inform fraud judgments throughout the investigation. A senior figure has to take on the leadership in the fraud brainstorming to secure responsiveness to fraud risk and fraud detection capabilities. The typical senior in a law firm is a partner in the firm. A law firm partner can play a critical role in leading brainstorming sessions and demonstrate the importance of this leadership in achieving brainstorming objectives.
Dennis and Johnstone (2018) conducted a natural field experiment examining the joint role of partner leadership and junior knowledge in fraud brainstorming. While their empirical study was concerned with audit partners and their subordinates, lessons can be learned from their study for law partners and their associates.
6 - Dechert LLP as a Case-Study Observation of Investigatory Knowledge Work
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp 131-146
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While pro bono activities have been skeptically discussed in the literature by Fabio (2021), Ryan (2021), and Whalen-Bridge (2021), as presented earlier in this book, many lawyers and law firms emphasize their pro bono activities in their communication on legal services markets. An example is the law firm Dechert, which posted the following message on its website (www.dechert.com) on July 1, 2021: “The American Lawyer ranks Dechert #1 for international pro bono work again.” The firm claims to be the leading law firm for international pro bono work. In the preceding year lawyers at the firm dedicated 7% of billable hours – more than 105,000 lawyer hours – to pro bono work. According to its website, Dechert is a global law firm with 24 offices around the world.
From this book’s perspective of lawyer roles in knowledge work, this chapter describes the work of Dechert lawyers as corporate investigators. They were hired to investigate a publicly sensitive corruption case, and their report of investigation became publicly available. Based on the investigation report and media coverage of the case (Cohan, 2021; Dechert, 2021; Gara and Voytko, 2021; Goldstein et al., 2020), it is possible to present and reflect on Dechert lawyers as corporate investigators in this chapter.
In 2020 the media reported the following statements: “the billionaire who stood by Jeffrey Epstein,” “Dechert’s Leon Black investigation: things you may have missed,” “What a sad tale of sycophants: Wall Street is not buying Leon Black’s Epstein story,” “Jeffrey Epstein’s deep ties to top Wall Street figures,” “Billionaire Leon Black is leaving Apollo following scrutiny over ties to Jeffrey Epstein,” and “Billionaire Leon Black, revealed to pay Jeffrey Epstein $158m, is stepping down” (Gara and Voytko, 2021). These headlines emerged as Dechert (2021) concluded an investigation on behalf of the board of Apollo Global Management. Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in jail in August 2019 after being charged with historical sex offences, including the abuse of underage female prostitutes (Sampson, 2020). The suspected fraud was concerned with Black’s involvement with Epstein.
8 - Considerations on the Jeffrey Grant Case: Legal Ethics and Redemptive Knowledge
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp 163-182
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This chapter discusses a very different lawyer story: How a lawyer who went to prison for 9/11-related fraud got his law license back and became an ordained minister along the way. After nearly two decades without practicing, Jeffrey Grant got his law license back in May 2021. He served over a year in prison for lying about office space in order to get federal relief money after 9/11. He then went to seminary and opened a ministry serving white-collar defendants (Arvedlund, 2020; Dumas, 2018; Erb, 2020; Grant, 2020; Greene, 2021; Monaco, 2020; Osnos, 2021; Pavlo, 2019a, 2019b; Polverari, 2020). The ministry had several hundred members (White Collar Support Group, 2021). Grant noticed that many of the members had legal issues. This was one of his motives for getting his law license back (Coutu, 2021).
Grant’s role was not to be a defender, enabler, or investigator; it was to be a connector. The slogan for the community was the following statement: “It’s the isolation that destroys us. The solution is community” (White Collar Support Group, 2021). The mission of the community is given as follows (www.prisonist.org):
Our mission is to introduce you to other members of the white collar justice community, to hear their very personal stories, and hopefully gain a broader perspective of what this is really all about. Maybe this will inspire some deeper thoughts and introspection? Maybe it will inspire some empathy and compassion for people you might otherwise resent or dismiss? And maybe it will help lift us all out of our own isolation and into community, so we can learn to live again in the sunshine of the spirit.
Grant started his law career in the way many young lawyers would dream of starting. He launched his own firm shortly after graduating from the New York Law School in 1981 and grew it, first in Manhattan and then in Westchester County, adding employees and clients. He served as outside general counsel to two large real-estate companies and kept adding staff. But then the cracks appeared after he was prescribed opioids for pain relief after rupturing his Achilles tendon playing sport.
9 - Knowledge Management
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
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- 28 December 2023
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- 20 July 2023, pp 183-204
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Lawyer roles in knowledge work are a matter of individual efforts to accumulate and apply personal knowledge to client opportunities and threats. The individual lawyer as a knowledge worker has in their head a store of information combined with interpretation, reflection, and context that represent a resource enabling the lawyer to help clients in their defense against accusations and allegations, their exploration and exploitation of opportunities, and their need to find out what has happened through an investigation. While sometimes working alone, interactions with other lawyers as well as cocreation of knowledge with clients require an approach to knowledge management.
Knowledge management refers to a set of management activities aimed at designing and influencing knowledge creation and integration as well as the sharing of knowledge (McIver et al., 2013). Knowledge management is the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets (Nath, 2021). Learning is associated with knowledge management where learning is concerned with observation and reflection, formation of concepts and generalization, and testing concepts and ideas in real situations (Lee, 2020; Lopes and Fernandes, 2021).
Lawyers can be defined as knowledge workers. They are professionals who have gained knowledge through formal education (explicit) and learning (tacit). Often, there is some variation in the quality of their education and learning. The value of professionals’ education tends to last throughout their careers. For example, lawyers in Norway are asked whether they got the good grade of “laud” even 30 years after graduation. Professionals’ prestige (based partly on the institutions from which they obtained their education) is a valuable organizational resource because of the elite social networks that provide access to valuable external resources for the firm (Hitt et al., 2001).
After completing their advanced educational requirements, most professionals enter their careers as associates in law. In this role, they continue to learn and thus, they gain significant tacit knowledge through “learning by doing.” Therefore, they largely bring explicit knowledge derived from formal education into their firms and build tacit knowledge through experience (Hitt et al., 2001).
Coinciding with a move to professional management, law firms have increased their emphasis on billable hours for attorneys.
List of Tables and Figures
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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2 - The Lawyer as Client Defender
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- 20 July 2023, pp 41-68
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Summary
Former U.S. President Donald Trump used nearly $700,000 in campaign funds to pay the lawyers who defended him at his second impeachment trial, according to filings with the Federal Election Committee. Apparently Trump’s campaign committee, since renamed Make America Great Again, paid $580,000 to the Philadelphia law firm of Michael van der Veen and Bruce Castor and another $100,000 to a third impeachment defense lawyer from Alabama, David Schoen. Trump was acquitted along party lines, but a few Republican senators joined Democrats in voting to convict Donald Trump (Yaffe-Bellany, 2021).
The wide variety of clients for lawyers as defenders might be illustrated by Donald Trump versus Li Zhuang in China. For many Chinese criminal lawyers, Enshen (2010) argued that legal practice is not only difficult but also dangerous. Li Zhuang was a successful lawyer who specialized in the defense of violent criminal cases. Li was suddenly arrested and convicted to prison. There was little his defense lawyer could do because of the formal and informal limits on the ability of lawyers to represent clients. There are certain political, ideological, and institutional frameworks that play critical roles in the deterioration of criminal defense lawyers’ working environment in China (Yuan, 2021).
1. ALLIED DEFENSE KNOWLEDGE WORK
Newman and Ugwudike (2014) phrased the question as defense lawyers and probation officers: offenders’ allies or adversaries? They argued that any relationship between defender and defendant can go awry, especially since it is frequently characterized by an inbuilt discrepancy in power, such as that between an elite professional and a suspected offender, with the latter so heavily reliant and dependent on the former. The researchers found that defense lawyers do not act as effective allies for their clients. The lawyers failed to meet public service ideals and professional standards, and, as such, cannot be considered effective allies.
Pivaty et al. (2020) studied contemporary criminal defense practice. They found a shifting focus of criminal proceedings from the trial to the pre-trial stages that leads to a changing role of criminal defense practitioners. Criminal defense lawyers are expected to enter the proceedings earlier and exercise active and participatory defense as early as the investigative stage.
Introduction
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- 20 July 2023, pp 1-6
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A lawyer is a knowledge worker providing legal services to clients. In the role of enabler, the lawyer tends to be in a long-term relationship with the client. It is an enduring relationship involving some level of permanence. Lawyers experience stability as they recognize repeated work elements with the same clients. Social identification at work is in the tradition of being understood in terms of partnership or another role in the law firm with a stable group of corporate and/or individual clients. There is an enduring and significant relationship with others at work as well as with continuing clients on the market for legal services (Litchfield et al., 2021: 322):
These social identifications are important to individuals because they give meaning and stability to individuals’ self-concepts, and in doing so help reduce uncertainty and fulfill a desire for belongingness.
In the roles of defender and investigator, the lawyer tends to be in a shortterm relationship with the client. The lawyer forms temporary relationships again and again in their work lives – a notion captured by Litchfield et al. (2021) in the concept of professional network. Transient relationships derive from a project-based organization of work. Such arrangements are inherently disposable exchanges that are disbanded on the completion of work. There might be short-term, unpredictable transactions in transient relationships. Arrangement might be precarious as it is not securely held in place and may seem likely to fall or collapse at any moment. There are short-term, unpredictable transactions in transient relationships. They experience only repeated elements of relationships (Litchfield et al., 2021: 322):
As the temporary and changing nature of work becomes the norm it is the core, repeated elements of relationships that underpin work identification for an increasingly transient knowledge workforce.
Litchfield et al. (2021) studied work identifications where the traditional work identification might be exemplified by the enabler, while the transient work identification might be exemplified by the defender and the investigator. The self-conception of a lawyer in terms of work identity results from individual efforts to construct seemingly stable frames for knowledge work.
Frontmatter
- Petter Gottschalk, Handelshøyskolen BI, Christopher Hamerton, University of Southampton
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- Book:
- Lawyer Roles in Knowledge Work
- Published by:
- Intersentia
- Published online:
- 28 December 2023
- Print publication:
- 20 July 2023, pp i-iv
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- Chapter
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